Mortal Mistakes
Story Recap After Nick is cured, an enigmatic murder leads him to realize that his vampire problems have only got worse. Notes Written as a gift for PJ1228 in FK Fic Fest 2015 (released 4 September). The story was beta'ed by bethskink. Length: 4041 words. Written to the prompt: Gen. Nick and others. "An incident causes Nick to realize that he can be far more efficient in helping mortals as a vampire." Quotes * "The lights that had been brought in to illuminate the crime scene created a bubble of brightness which Nick's mortal eyes had difficulty piercing. He stood at the edge, peering out into the darkness, lost in thought. So much had changed in the last 800 years, both in the world in general and in his life in particular. Adjusting to the fluctuating rules of what he could do—and what he couldn't—was a constant struggle. At last, though, he thought he'd finally found what he wanted: Natalie, mortality, a life. Now that he was no longer a vampire, he could finally embrace his calling as a cop and put all his efforts into righting the balance of his sins." Comments * "Oooooo, chills! This reads as chapter one of a longer story. Who did the murders, are the enforcers going to come back, just what will LaCroix do? Very nice; interesting and well told." &mdash comment by Walt D on AO3 * "You leave the end open. Nick may have come to the conclusion that he may best serve the human community as a vampire (and may or may not decide from that to return to Lacroix); but that is to assume the choice is his. / Ten minutes from now, he may have forgotten all. / Tomorrow or next week, to Natalie's fury, they may be having this conversation again—and he may return again to the Raven to talk to Lacroix. A time loop story, almost. / Walt is right: there is ample room for a sequel here, particularly in terms of discovering who is behind the plot—assuming it's not Lacroix himself, of course. In the circumstances, though, I suspect Nick will never find out. Either his memory will be wiped, over and over. Or he will renounce his humanity to return to the vampire community, the killings will stop and the murderer remain silent, and ... there will therefore be no clues to lead to the solution of the case. / Creepy indeed. And most effective." &mdash excerpted from comment by greerwatson on AO3 ** "You found everything I was going for, especially the hint of Groundhog's day scenario. ... I think that as a vampire, Nick too well compartmentalized the differences between humans and vampires and, as much as he thought he wanted mortality, it didn't really occur to him that mortality would make him fully human, with all the human vulnerabilities that he had grown used to exploiting." &mdash excerpted from reply by LadySilver on AO3 * "Oh, this is disturbing! I sometimes felt like FL underplayed just how awful playing with people's memories can be, but you've captured it perfectly here. It's so creepy. And poor Nick! He was making mortality work so well until the vampires decided to interfere." — comment by skieswideopen on AO3 ** "FK did play the hypnosis either as a joke or a reset button. I don't recall much (anything?) in-show that dealt with the actual consequences of memories not matching reality. / The idea that Nick has become a victim of the same shennanigans that he used to pull was the driving force for the story. Those shennanigans are creepy and disturbing, so I think it's only right that he got to be on the other end of them." &mdash reply by LadySilver on AO3 * "Now I'm the last person to be against Nick returning to become a vampire again, but he does so well being mortal that it's almost a pity that he seems to have no choice but to go back. However, the peace Nick finds within the Raven that he hadn't been aware he had been missing, seems to imply that he did miss parts of his former life. And of course Lacroix will be there for him. / When I picked the prompt, I didn't necessarily have in mind that Nick actually becomes mortal. You've done an awesome job of going this far and letting him experience what it's like." &mdash excerpted from comment by PJ1228 on AO3 See Also Category:Fan Fiction Category:Works by argentum_ls Category:G-Rated Fan Fiction Category:Short Story Category:Drama Category:Alternative Universe Category:Fan Fiction from 2015